The 1906 United Kingdom general election was held from 12 January to 8 February 1906.

The Liberals, led by Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman, won a landslide majority at the election. The Conservatives led by Arthur Balfour, who had been in government until the month before the election, lost more than half their seats, including party leader Balfour's own seat in Manchester East, leaving them with their lowest-ever number of seats. The election saw a 5.4% swing from the Conservative Party to the Liberal Party, the largest-ever seen at the time (however, if only looking at seats contested in both 1900 and 1906, the Conservative vote fell by 11.6%).[1] This has resulted in the 1906 general election being dubbed the "Liberal landslide", and is now ranked alongside the 1931, 1945, 1983 and 1997 general elections as one of the largest landslide election victories.[2]

This election was a landslide defeat for the Conservative Party and their Liberal Unionist allies, with the primary reason given by historians as the party's weakness after its split over the issue of free trade (Joseph Chamberlain had resigned from government in September 1903 in order to campaign for Tariff Reform, which would allow "preferential tariffs"). Many working-class people at the time saw this as a threat to the price of food, hence the debate was nicknamed "Big Loaf, Little Loaf", the Liberal's landslide victory of 125 seats over all other parties led to the passing of social legislation known as the Liberal reforms.

This was the last general election in which the Liberals won an absolute majority in the House of Commons, and the last general election in which they won the popular vote, it was also the last peacetime election held more than five years after the previous one prior to passage of the Parliament Act 1911, which limited the duration of Parliaments in peacetime to five years. The Conservative Party's seat total of 156 MPs remains its worst result ever in a general election.

A coalition between the Conservative and Liberal Unionist parties had governed the United Kingdom since the general election of 1895. Arthur Balfour had served as Prime Minister from 1902 until 5 December 1905, when he chose to resign over growing unpopularity, instead of calling a general election. Balfour had hoped that under a Liberal government splits would reemerge, which would therefore help the Conservative Party achieve victory at the next election.[3]

The incoming Liberal government chose to capitalise on the Conservative government's unpopularity and called an immediate general election one month later on 12 January 1906, which resulted in a crushing defeat for the Conservatives.

The Unionist government had become deeply divided over the issue of free trade, which soon became an electoral liability, this culminated in Joseph Chamberlain's resignation from the government in May 1903 to campaign for tariff reform in order to protect British industry from foreign competition. This division was in contrast to the Liberal Party's belief in free trade, which it argued would help keep costs of living down.[3]

The issue of free trade became the feature of the Liberal campaign, under the slogan 'big loaf' under a Liberal government, 'little loaf' under a Conservative government, it also commissioned a variety of posters warning the electorate over rises in food prices under protectionist policies, including one which mentioned that "Balfour and Chamberlain are linked together against free trade ... Don't be deceived by Tory tricks".[4]

The Boer War had also contributed to the unpopularity of the Conservative and Unionist government, the war had lasted over two and half years, much longer than had originally been expected, while details were revealed of the existence of 'concentration camps' where over 20,000 men, women and children were reported to have died because of poor sanitation.[citation needed]

The war had also unearthed the poor social state of the country in the early 1900s, this was after more than 40% of military recruits for the Boer War were declared unfit for military service, while in Manchester 8,000 of the 11,000 men who had been recruited had to be turned away for being in poor physical conditions. This was after the 1902 Rowntree study of poverty in York showed that almost a third of the population lived below the 'poverty line', which helped to increase the calls for social reforms, something which had been neglected by the Conservative and Unionist government.[5]

The Conservative and Unionist Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, had been blamed over the issue of 'Chinese Slavery', which was the use of Chinese-indentured labour in South Africa, this became controversial among the Conservative Party's middle-class supporters, who saw it as unethical, while the working class also objected to the practice, as white emigration to South Africa could have created jobs for the unemployed in Britain.[6]

Protestant Nonconformists were angered when Conservatives pushed through the Education Act 1902, which integrated denominational schools into the state system and provided for their support from taxes, the local school boards that they largely controlled were abolished and replaced by county governments that were usually controlled by Anglicans. Worst of all the hated Anglican schools would now receive funding from local taxes that everyone had to pay. One tactic was to refuse to pay local taxes,[7] the education issue played a major role in the Liberal victory in 1906, as Dissenter (nonconformist) Conservatives punished their old party and voted Liberal. However the Liberals failed repeatedly to repeal or modify the 1902 law.[8] Another issue which lost the Conservatives nonconformist votes was the Licensing Act 1904, although the legislation aimed to reduce the number of public houses, it proposed to compensate brewers for the cancellation of their license, leading many who adhered to temperance to denounce it as a "brewers' bill".[9]

The election of 1906 led eventually to old-age pensions, the Trade Boards Act of 1909 which applied minimum wages to the 'sweated trades', the redistributive 1909 'people's budget', the introduction of labour exchanges, the National Insurance Act of 1911, and the Parliament Act of that year which removed the House of Lords' veto on legislation from the Commons ... Though the eventual achievements of the parliament elected in 1906 were remarkable, the election was something of a fluke; the scale of the Liberal victory was in direct proportion to the scale of preceding Tory blunders but it exaggerated the degree of dependable Liberal support in the country. The subsequent elections in January and December 1910, during the crisis over the people's budget, saw the number of Liberal MPs reduced to 275 and 272 respectively, while Conservative support recovered and the party, together with their Liberal Unionist allies, took 273 and then 272 seats.[11]

The landslide Liberal victory led to many Conservative and Unionist MPs losing what had previously been regarded as safe seats, this resulted in prominent Conservative ministers being unseated from their constituencies, including former Prime Minister Arthur Balfour. Only three of the Conservative cabinet which had served until December 1905 (one month before the election) held onto their seats, former Chancellor Austen Chamberlain, former Home Secretary Aretas Akers-Douglas, and former Secretary of State for War Hugh Arnold-Forster.

Arthur Balfour, who entered the general election as the Conservative Party leader and had until the month before been Prime Minister, unexpectedly lost his seat in the Manchester East constituency, a seat which he had represented since 1885. The result in Manchester East saw a large 22.4% swing to the Liberal candidate Thomas Gardner Horridge, much larger than the national 5.4% swing to the Liberals.

The Liberal candidate in Manchester East had been helped by a pact with the local Labour Party. Horridge said of his victory that "East Manchester is essentially a Labour constituency and the great Labour party has supported my candidacy very thoroughly and very loyally", he also said that "[Manchester East constituents] have returned me, I take it, first to uphold free trade, next to deal with Chinese labour, and after that to support legislation on the lines laid down in the programme of the Labour party, with which I am heartily in accord".[4]

Balfour's unseating became symbolic of the Conservative Party's landslide defeat, the result has since been called one of the biggest upsets in British political history and remains the only instance of a former Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition losing their seat in a general election.[12]

Prior to the 1906 general election, the Labour and Liberal parties negotiated an informal agreement to ensure the anti-Conservative vote was not split between the two parties, the Gladstone–MacDonald pact agreed in 1903 meant that, in 31 of the 50 seats where Labour Party candidates stood, the Liberal Party did not put up a candidate. This proved helpful to both parties, as 24 of Labour's 29 elected MPs came from constituencies where the Liberal Party agreed not to contest, while the pact allowed the Liberals to concentrate resources on Conservative/Liberal marginal constituencies.

Bealey, Frank (1956), "Negotiations Between the Liberal Party and the Labour Representation Committee Before the General Election of 1906", The Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 29: 265+

Blewett, Neal (1972), The peers, the parties and the people: the general elections of 1910, University of Toronto Press

1.
United Kingdom general election, 1900
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The United Kingdom general election of 1900 was held between 26 September and 24 October 1900, following the dissolution of Parliament on 25 September. Also known as the election, it was held at a time when it was widely believed that the Second Boer War had effectively been won. The Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury with their Liberal Unionist allies, secured a majority of 130. This was largely due to the Conservatives winning 163 uncontested seats, the Labour Representation Committee, later to become the Labour Party, participated in a general election for the first time even though they had only been in existence for a few months. As a result, Keir Hardie and Richard Bell were the only LRC members of parliament in 1900 and this was the first time that Winston Churchill was elected to the House of Commons. He had stood in the seat, Oldham, in a by-election the previous year. It was also the general election of the Victorian era. All parties with more than 1,000 votes shown, mPs elected in the United Kingdom general election,1900 Parliamentary franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918 F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts, 1832-1987. The life of Joseph Chamberlain, volume Three 1895-1900, pp 571-92 on dissolving Parliament, newcastle and the Boer War, Regional Reactions to an Imperial War. Online Marsh, Peter T. Joseph Chamberlain, Entrepreneur in Politics pp 492-502, the Conservative party, patriotism, and British politics, the case of the general election of 1900. Journal of British Studies 40#1, 107-145

2.
United Kingdom general election, January 1910
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The United Kingdom general election of January 1910 was held from 15 January to 10 February 1910. The government called the election in the midst of a crisis caused by the rejection of the Peoples Budget by the House of Lords. Asquith formed a government with the support of the Irish Parliamentary Party, a second election was soon held in December. The Labour Party, led by Arthur Henderson, continued to gain strength, the Peers, the Parties and the People, The General Elections of 1910 Clarke, P. F. The electoral position of the Liberal and Labour parties, 1910-1914, F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts, 1832-1987 O’Brien, Phillips Payson. The 1910 Elections and the Primacy of Foreign Policy, in William Mulligan and Brendan Simms, eds. The Primacy of Foreign Policy in British History, 1660–2000 pp. 249-259, social Geography of British Elections 1885–1910 Sykes, Alan. Tariff Reform in British Politics, 1903-1913 Sykes, Alan, the Confederacy and the purge of the Unionist free traders, 1906–1910. Class and the vote before the first world war, British Journal of Political Science 8#4, 441-457. Online Spartacus, Political Parties and Election Results United Kingdom election results - summary results 1885-1979

3.
House of Commons of the United Kingdom
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The House of Commons of the United Kingdom is the lower house of the countrys parliament. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster, officially, the full name of the house is, The Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The House is a body consisting of 650 members known as Members of Parliament. Members are elected to represent constituencies by first-past-the-post and hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved, under the Parliament Act 1911, the Lords power to reject legislation was reduced to a delaying power. The Government is primarily responsible to the House of Commons and the prime minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains the support of a majority of its members. Although it does not formally elect the prime minister, the position of the parties in the House of Commons is of overriding importance, by convention, the prime minister is answerable to, and must maintain the support of, the House of Commons. Since 1963, by convention, the minister is always a member of the House of Commons. The Commons may indicate its lack of support for the Government by rejecting a motion of confidence or by passing a motion of no confidence, confidence and no confidence motions are sometimes phrased explicitly, for instance, That this House has no confidence in Her Majestys Government. Many other motions were considered confidence issues, even though not explicitly phrased as such, in particular, important bills that form a part of the Governments agenda were formerly considered matters of confidence, as is the annual Budget. Parliament normally sits for a term of five years. Subject to that limit, the minister could formerly choose the timing of the dissolution of parliament. By this second mechanism, the government of the United Kingdom can change without a general election. In such circumstances there may not even have been a party leadership election, as the new leader may be chosen by acclaim. A prime minister may resign if he or she is not defeated at the polls. In such a case, the premiership goes to whoever can command a majority in the House of Commons, in practice this is usually the new leader of the outgoing prime ministers party. Until 1965, the Conservative Party had no mechanism for electing a new leader, when Anthony Eden resigned as PM in 1957 without recommending a successor and it fell to the Queen to appoint Harold Macmillan as the new prime minister, after taking the advice of ministers. By convention, all ministers must be members of the House of Commons or of the House of Lords, a handful have been appointed who were outside Parliament, but in most cases they then entered Parliament either in a by-election or by receiving a peerage. Since 1902, all ministers have been members of the Commons

4.
Henry Campbell-Bannerman
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Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, GCB was a British Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908 and Leader of the Liberal Party from 1899 to 1908. He also served as Secretary of State for War twice, in the Cabinets of Gladstone and he was the first First Lord of the Treasury to be officially called Prime Minister, the term only coming into official usage five days after he took office. He also remains the only person to date to hold the positions of Prime Minister and Father of the House at the same time, known colloquially as CB, he was a firm believer in free trade, Irish Home Rule and the improvement of social conditions. He has been referred to as Britains first, and only, Campbell-Bannerman resigned as Prime Minister on 3 April 1908 due to ill health and was replaced by his Chancellor, H. H. Asquith. Henrys older brother, James, served as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Glasgow and he was opposed to the majority of his younger brothers policies, and chose to stand down in the same election that would bring Campbell-Bannerman to power. Campbell-Bannerman was educated at the High School of Glasgow, the University of Glasgow, and Trinity College, Cambridge, after graduating, he joined the family firm of J. & W. Campbell & Co. based in Glasgows Ingram Street. Campbell was made a partner in the firm in 1860, following his marriage that year to Sarah Charlotte Bruce, Henry and his new bride set up residence at 6 Clairmont Gardens in the Park district in the West End of Glasgow. The couple never had any children, physically the couple, both reportedly enormous eaters, each weighed nearly 20 stone in later years. Campbell-Bannerman spoke French, German and Italian fluently, and every summer he and his wife spent a couple of months in Europe, usually in France and at the spa town of Marienbad in Bohemia. In April 1868, at the age of thirty-one, Campbell-Bannerman stood as a Liberal candidate in a by-election for the Stirling Burghs constituency, narrowly losing to fellow Liberal John Ramsay. In Gladstones third and fourth governments, in 1886 and 1892 to 1894 respectively, as well as Roseberys government from 1894 to 1895, he served as Secretary of State for War. During his time in office, he persuaded the Duke of Cambridge. In 1895 Campbell-Bannerman lobbied strongly to be appointed Speaker of the House of Commons, Rosebery, backed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer William Harcourt, refused since Campbell-Bannerman was viewed as indispensable to the Governments front-bench team in the lower House. On 6 February 1899 Campbell-Bannerman succeeded Sir William Vernon Harcourt as Leader of the Liberals in the House of Commons, the Conservative Government of Arthur Balfour had threatened countervailing duties and subsidies of West Indian sugar producers as a negotiating tool. The Conventions intent was to lead to the phasing out of export bounties. In a speech to the Cobden Club on 28 November 1902, Sir, of all the insane schemes ever offered to a free country as a boon this is surely the maddest. Chamberlains proposals dominated politics through the rest of 1903 up until the election of 1906. Campbell-Bannerman, like other Liberals, held a belief in free trade

5.
Arthur Balfour
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Entering Parliament in 1874, Balfour achieved prominence as Chief Secretary for Ireland, in which position he suppressed agrarian unrest whilst taking measures against absentee landlords. He opposed Irish Home Rule, saying there could be no half-way house between Ireland remaining within the United Kingdom or becoming independent. From 1891 he led the Conservative Party in the House of Commons, serving under his uncle, Lord Salisbury, a brilliant debater, he was bored by the mundane tasks of party management. In July 1902 he succeeded his uncle as Prime Minister and he oversaw reform of British defence policy and supported Fishers naval innovations. He secured the Entente Cordiale with France, leaving Germany in the cold and he cautiously embraced the imperial preference championed by Joseph Chamberlain, but resignations from the Cabinet over tariffs left his party divided. He also suffered from public anger at the stages of the Boer war. He resigned as Prime Minister in December 1905 and the month the Conservatives suffered a landslide defeat at the 1906 election. He resigned as party leader later in 1911, Balfour returned as First Lord of the Admiralty in Asquiths Coalition Government. In December 1916 he became Foreign Secretary in David Lloyd Georges coalition and he was frequently left out of the inner workings of foreign policy, although the Balfour Declaration on a Jewish homeland bore his name. He continued to serve in positions throughout the 1920s, and died on 19 March 1930 aged 81. Arthur Balfour was born at Whittingehame House, East Lothian, Scotland and his godfather was the Duke of Wellington, after whom he was named. He was the eldest son, third of eight children, and had four brothers, Arthur Balfour was educated at Grange preparatory school in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, and Eton College, where he studied with the influential master, William Johnson Cory. He went to the University of Cambridge, where he read moral sciences at Trinity College and his younger brother was the Cambridge embryologist Francis Maitland Balfour. Margot Tennant wished to marry him, but Balfour said, No, I rather think of having a career of my own. His household was maintained by his sister, Alice. In middle age, Balfour had a 40-year friendship with Mary Charteris, Lady Elcho, later Countess of Wemyss, in 1874 he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Hertford until 1885. In spring 1878, Balfour became Private Secretary to his uncle and he accompanied Salisbury to the Congress of Berlin and gained his first experience in international politics in connection with the settlement of the Russo-Turkish conflict. At the same time he became known in the world of letters, Balfour divided his time between politics and academic pursuits

6.
Liberal Party (UK)
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The Liberal Party was a liberal political party which was one of the two major parties in the United Kingdom in the 19th and early 20th century. The party arose from an alliance of Whigs and free-trade Peelites and Radicals favourable to the ideals of the American, by the end of the nineteenth century, it had formed four governments under William Gladstone. Despite splitting over the issue of Irish Home Rule, the party returned to power in 1906 with a landslide victory, by the end of the 1920s, the Labour Party had replaced the Liberals as the Conservatives main rival. The party went into decline and by the 1950s won no more than six seats at general elections, apart from notable by-election victories, the partys fortunes did not improve significantly until it formed the SDP–Liberal Alliance with the newly formed Social Democratic Party in 1981. At the 1983 General Election, the Alliance won over a quarter of the vote, at the 1987 General Election, its vote fell below 23% and the Liberal and Social Democratic parties merged in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats. A splinter group reconstituted the Liberal Party in 1989 and it was formed by party members opposed to the merger who saw the Lib Dems diluting Liberal ideals. Prominent intellectuals associated with the Liberal Party include the philosopher John Stuart Mill, the economist John Maynard Keynes, the Liberal Party grew out of the Whigs, who had their origins in an aristocratic faction in the reign of Charles II, and the early 19th century Radicals. The Whigs were in favour of reducing the power of the Crown, although their motives in this were originally to gain more power for themselves, the more idealistic Whigs gradually came to support an expansion of democracy for its own sake. The great figures of reformist Whiggery were Charles James Fox and his disciple, after decades in opposition, the Whigs returned to power under Grey in 1830 and carried the First Reform Act in 1832. The Reform Act was the climax of Whiggism, but it brought about the Whigs demise. As early as 1839 Russell had adopted the name of Liberals, the leading Radicals were John Bright and Richard Cobden, who represented the manufacturing towns which had gained representation under the Reform Act. They favoured social reform, personal liberty, reducing the powers of the Crown and the Church of England, avoidance of war and foreign alliances, for a century, free trade remained the one cause which could unite all Liberals. This allowed ministries led by Russell, Palmerston, and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen to hold office for most of the 1850s and 1860s, a leading Peelite was William Ewart Gladstone, who was a reforming Chancellor of the Exchequer in most of these governments. The formal foundation of the Liberal Party is traditionally traced to 1859 and this was brought about by Palmerstons death in 1865 and Russells retirement in 1868. After a brief Conservative government Gladstone won a victory at the 1868 election. The establishment of the party as a membership organisation came with the foundation of the National Liberal Federation in 1877. John Stuart Mill was a Liberal MP from 1865 to 1868, for the next thirty years Gladstone and Liberalism were synonymous. William Ewart Gladstone served as prime minister four times, called the Grand Old Man later in life, Gladstone was always a dynamic popular orator who appealed strongly to the working class and to the lower middle class

7.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses

8.
Stirling Burghs (UK Parliament constituency)
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Stirling Burghs was a district of burghs constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1708 to 1918. By 1832, the burgh of Queensferry had become the burgh of South Queensferry, in 1918, Stirling became part of Stirling and Falkirk Burghs and Dunfermline became part of Dunfermline Burghs, with the other burghs being represented as part of their respective counties. Henry Campbell-Bannerman was returned unopposed at the 1885 General Election and again on 10 February 1886 having accepted office as Secretary of State for War, at a by-election on 25 August 1892, having accepted office as Secretary of State for War, Henry Campbell-Bannerman was returned unopposed. Black Bond Stirling Leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with S

9.
Manchester East (UK Parliament constituency)
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Manchester East was one of six single-member parliamentary constituencies created in 1885 by the division of the existing three-member Parliamentary Borough of Manchester. The next redistribution took place under the terms of the Representation of the People Act 1918, the Manchester East seat was divided between the two new constituencies of Manchester Ardwick and Manchester Clayton. Notable result as Arthur Balfour had led the Conservative Party into the 1906 General Election as leader and he therefore became the first leader of the opposition to lose his seat

10.
John Redmond
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John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, and MP in the British House of Commons. He was best known as leader of the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 until his death in 1918 and he was also leader of the paramilitary organisation the Irish National Volunteers. He was born to an old prominent Catholic family in rural Ireland and he took over control of the minority IPP faction loyal to Charles Stewart Parnell when that leader died in 1891. Redmond was a politician who achieved the two main objectives of his political life, party unity and, in September 1914, the passing of the Irish Home Rule Act. The Act granted limited self-government to Ireland, within the United Kingdom, however, implementation of Home Rule was suspended by the outbreak of the First World War. However, after the Easter Rising of 1916, Irish public opinion shifted in favour of militant republicanism and full Irish independence, in sharp contrast to Parnell, Redmond lacked charisma. He worked well in small committees, but had success in arousing large audiences. Parnell always chose the nominees to Parliament, now they were selected by the local party organisations, giving Redmond numerous weak MPs over whom he had little control. He never tried to understand the unionist forces emerging in Ulster, Redmond was further weakened in 1914 by the formation by Sinn Féin members of the Irish Volunteers. His enthusiastic support for the British war effort alienated many Irish nationalists and his party had been increasingly hollowed out, and a major crisis—notably the Easter Rising—was enough to destroy it. John Edward Redmond was born at Ballytrent House, Kilrane, County Wexford and he was the eldest son of William Archer Redmond, MP by Mary, daughter of General Hoey, the brother of Francis Hoey, heir of the Hoey seat, Dunganstown Castle, County Wicklow. For over seven hundred years the Redmonds had been a prominent Catholic gentry family in County Wexford and Wexford town. They were one of the oldest Hiberno-Norman families, and had for a time been known as the Redmonds of The Hall. His more immediate family were a political dynasty themselves. After his death in 1866, his nephew, William Archer Redmond, John Redmond was the brother of Willie Redmond, MP for Wexford and East Clare, and the father of William Redmond, whose wife was Bridget Redmond. Redmonds family heritage was more complex than that of most of his nationalist political colleagues and his mother came from a Protestant and unionist family, although she had converted to Catholicism on marriage, she never converted to nationalism. As a student, young John exhibited the seriousness that many would come to associate with him. After finishing at Clongowes, Redmond attended Trinity College, Dublin to study law, in 1876 he left to live with his father in London, acting as his assistant in Westminster, where he developed more fascination for politics than for law

11.
Keir Hardie
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James Keir Hardie was a Scottish socialist, the founder of the Labour Party, and the first ever Labour Member of Parliament. Hardie started work at the age of seven, but was educated at home by his parents. Working in the mines, he became a full-time trade union organiser. His leadership of the failed Ayrshire miners’ strike of 1881 made such an impact on the mine-owners that they granted important concessions for fear of industrial action. Hardie was a dedicated Georgist for a number of years and a member of the Scottish Land Restoration League and it was through the single tax on land monopoly that Hardie gradually became a Fabian socialist. He reasoned that whatever the idea may be, State socialism is necessary as a stage in the development of the ideal, having won the parliamentary seat of West Ham South as an independent candidate in 1892, he helped to form the Independent Labour Party the following year. In 1900 he helped to form the union-based Labour Representation Committee, soon renamed the Labour Party, Hardie was also a lay preacher and temperance campaigner, who supported votes for women, self-rule for India, home-rule for Scotland, and an end to segregation in South Africa. At the outbreak of World War I, he tried to organise a pacifist general strike, James Keir Hardie was born on 15 August 1856 in a two-roomed cottage on the western edge of Newhouse, North Lanarkshire, near Holytown, a small town close to Motherwell in Scotland. His mother, Mary Keir, was a servant and his step-father. Hardies first job came at the young age of seven. Formal schooling henceforth became impossible, but his parents spent evenings teaching him to read and write, a great lockout of the Clydeside shipworkers took place in which the unionised workers were sent home for a period of six months. With their main source of income terminated, the family was forced to sell all their possessions to pay for food, one sibling took ill and died in the miserable conditions which followed, while the pregnancy of his mother limited her own ability to work. Making matters worse, young James lost his job for turning up late on two occasions, in desperation, his step-father returned to work at sea, while his mother moved from Glasgow to Newarthill, where his maternal grandmother still lived. At the age of 10 years old, Hardie went to work in the mines as a trapper — opening and closing a door for a 10-hour shift in order to maintain the air supply for miners in a given section. Hardie also began to attend school in Holytown at this time. Hardies father returned from sea and went to work on a line being constructed between Edinburgh and Glasgow. When this job was completed, the moved to the village of Quarter, South Lanarkshire. He also worked for two years above ground in the quarries, by the time he was 20, he had become a skilled practical miner

12.
Irish Parliamentary Party
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Its central objectives were legislative independence for Ireland and land reform. Its constitutional movement was instrumental in laying the groundwork for Irish self-government through three Irish Home Rule bills, the IPP evolved out of the Home Rule League which Isaac Butt founded after he defected from the Irish Conservative Party in 1873. The League sought to gain a form of freedom from Britain in order to manage Irish domestic affairs in the interest of the Protestant landlord class. It was inspired by the 1868 election of William Ewart Gladstone and his Liberal Party under the slogan Justice for Ireland, at first the Catholic hierarchy supported Gladstone supervising Irish affairs, hoping to gain financial aid for a Catholic University. But his educational programme of 1873 did not provide for a denominational university, the Home Government Association adopted educational issues and land reform into its programme, the hierarchy then favouring a Dublin-based parliament. The increasing Catholic numbers within the association frightened off its Protestant, the association was dissolved and Butt replaced it with the Home Rule League, formed after a conference in Dublin in November 1873. Gladstone unexpectedly called a new election in February 1874, which helped bring the League to the foreground, since 1872 the Secret Ballots Act had been introduced, so that voting was to be done secretly for the first time from then on. The League put denominational education, land reform and release of prisoners at the centre of the movement. It had difficulty finding reliable candidates to support its Home Rule issue, though succeeded in winning fifty-nine Irish seats, after the election forty-six members assembled in Dublin and organised themselves into a separate Irish parliamentary party in the Commons. The political outlook appeared encouraging at first, but the party displayed no initiative to achieve anything, Butt displayed lack of leadership, did not commit his party to anything. He made some excellent speeches but failed to any of the major parties to support bills beneficial to Ireland. This did not bring Home Rule closer but helped to revitalise the Irish party, Butt considered obstructionism a threat to democracy, its greatest benefit undoubtedly was that it helped bring Parnell to the fore of the political scene. An internal struggle began between Butt’s majority and Parnell’s minority leading to a rift in the party, Parnell determined to control of the Home Rule League. Parnell first worked successfully to have Fenians who missed out on Gladstone’s earlier amnesty freed, including Michael Davitt, after his release in 1877, Davitt travelled to America to meet John Devoy, the leading Irish-American Fenian and raise funds. During 1878 Parnell also met with leading members of the Irish American Fenians, in October Devoy agreed to a New Departure of separating militancy from the constitutional movement in order to further its path to Home Rule. Isaac Butt died of strain later that year and Parnell held back in grabbing control of the party and he immediately understood that supporting land agitation was a means to achieving his objective of self-government. The Conservatives under Disraeli had been defeated in the election and Gladstone was again Prime Minister and he attempted to defuse the land question with Balfour’s dual ownership Second Land Act of 1881 which failed to eliminate tenant evictions. Although the League discouraged violence, agrarian crimes increased widely, in April 1882 Parnell moved to make a deal with the government

13.
Labour Representation Committee (1900)
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The British Labour Party traces its origin to the LRCs foundation. In 1899, a Doncaster member of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, the motion was passed at all stages by the TUC, and the proposed conference was held at the Memorial Hall on Farringdon Street on 26 and 27 February 1900. The meeting was attended by a spectrum of working-class and left-wing organisations — trades unions represented about a half of the unions. The LRC is the predecessor of the modern British Labour Party. This created an association called the Labour Representation Committee, meant to coordinate attempts to support MPs sponsored by trade unions, to make this possible the Conference established the LRC. This committee included two members from the ILP, two from the SDF, one Fabian, and seven trade unionists and it had no single leader, and in the absence of one, the Independent Labour Party nominee Ramsay MacDonald was elected as Secretary. He had the task of keeping the various strands of opinions in the LRC united. The October 1900 Khaki election came too soon for the new party to effectively, total expenses for the election only came to £33. Only 15 candidatures were sponsored, but two were successful, Keir Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil and Richard Bell in Derby. Support for the LRC was boosted by the 1901 Taff Vale Case, the judgement effectively made strikes illegal since employers could recoup the cost of lost business from the unions. On 15 February 1906, at their first meeting after the election, the Fabian Society provided much of the intellectual stimulus for the party. One of the first acts of the new Liberal Government was to reverse the Taff Vale judgement, the Peoples History Museum in Manchester holds the minutes of the first Labour Party meeting in 1906 and has them on display in the Main Galleries. Also within the museum is the Labour History Archive and Study Centre, which holds the collection of the Labour Party, with material ranging from 1900 to the present day

14.
Waterford City (UK Parliament constituency)
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Waterford City was a United Kingdom Parliament constituency, in Ireland. This constituency was the Parliamentary borough of Waterford in County Waterford and it returned one MP 1801–1832, two MPs 1832–1885 and one 1885–1922. It was a constituency represented in Parliament when the Union of Great Britain. From the dissolution of Parliament in 1922 the area was no longer represented in the United Kingdom House of Commons, the constituency was a predominantly Nationalist area in 1918. The seat was contested by William Redmond, the son of the IPP leader John Redmond whom he replaced in the Waterford City constituency in a by-election held in March 1918, in the general election of December 1918, it was the only Irish seat the IPP won outside Ulster. In republican theory every MP elected in Ireland was a potential Deputy to this assembly, in practice only the Sinn Féin members accepted the offer. The revolutionary First Dáil assembled on 21 January 1919 and last met on 10 May 1921, the First Dáil, according to a resolution passed on 10 May 1921, was formally dissolved on the assembling of the Second Dáil. This took place on 16 August 1921, in 1921 Sinn Féin decided to use the UK authorised elections for the Northern Ireland House of Commons and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland as a poll for the Irish Republics Second Dáil. This area, in theory, was incorporated in the five member Dáil constituency of Waterford–Tipperary East. Representation increased to two members Representation reduced to one member The single-member elections in this took place using the first past the post electoral system. Multi-member elections used the plurality-at-large voting system, myths and Memories of the Easter Rising, Cultural and Political Nationalism in Ireland. Dublin and Portland, OR, Irish Academic Press,2006, the Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith, 2nd edition edited by F. W. S. Craig Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922, edited by B. M

15.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
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The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of Her Majestys Government in the United Kingdom. The prime minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Monarch, to Parliament, to their political party, the office is one of the Great Offices of State. The current prime minister, Theresa May, leader of the Conservative Party, was appointed by the Queen on 13 July 2016. The position of Prime Minister was not created, it evolved slowly and erratically over three hundred years due to acts of Parliament, political developments, and accidents of history. The office is therefore best understood from a historical perspective, the origins of the position are found in constitutional changes that occurred during the Revolutionary Settlement and the resulting shift of political power from the Sovereign to Parliament. The political position of Prime Minister was enhanced by the development of political parties, the introduction of mass communication. By the start of the 20th century the modern premiership had emerged, prior to 1902, the prime minister sometimes came from the House of Lords, provided that his government could form a majority in the Commons. However as the power of the aristocracy waned during the 19th century the convention developed that the Prime Minister should always sit in the lower house. As leader of the House of Commons, the Prime Ministers authority was further enhanced by the Parliament Act of 1911 which marginalised the influence of the House of Lords in the law-making process. The Prime Minister is ex officio also First Lord of the Treasury, certain privileges, such as residency of 10 Downing Street, are accorded to Prime Ministers by virtue of their position as First Lord of the Treasury. As the Head of Her Majestys Government the modern Prime Minister leads the Cabinet, in addition the Prime Minister leads a major political party and generally commands a majority in the House of Commons. As such the incumbent wields both legislative and executive powers, under the British system there is a unity of powers rather than separation. In the House of Commons, the Prime Minister guides the process with the goal of enacting the legislative agenda of their political party. The Prime Minister also acts as the face and voice of Her Majestys Government. The British system of government is based on an uncodified constitution, in 1928, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith described this characteristic of the British constitution in his memoirs, In this country we live. Our constitutional practices do not derive their validity and sanction from any Bill which has received the assent of the King, Lords. They rest on usage, custom, convention, often of slow growth in their early stages, not always uniform, the relationships between the Prime Minister and the Sovereign, Parliament and Cabinet are defined largely by these unwritten conventions of the constitution. Many of the Prime Ministers executive and legislative powers are actually royal prerogatives which are still vested in the Sovereign

16.
United Kingdom general election, 1931
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The bulk of the National Governments support came from the Conservative Party, and the Conservatives won 470 seats. The Labour party suffered its greatest defeat, losing four out of five compared with the previous election. The Liberal Party, split into three factions, continued to shrink and the Liberal National faction never reunited, Ivor Bulmer-Thomas said the results were the most astonishing in the history of the British party system. It was the last election where one party received a majority of the votes cast. After battling with the Great Depression for two years, Ramsay MacDonalds Labour government had faced with a sudden budget crisis in August 1931. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden refused to consider deficit spending or tariffs as alternative solutions, when the government resigned, MacDonald was encouraged by King George V to form an all-party National Government to deal with the immediate crisis. However the Liberals were sceptical about an election and had to be persuaded, former Liberal leader David Lloyd George firmly opposed the decision to call an election and urged his colleagues to withdraw from the National Government. A main issue was the Conservatives wish to introduce protectionist trade policies, in order to preserve the Liberals within the National Government, the government itself did not endorse a policy but appealed for a Doctors Mandate to do whatever was necessary to rescue the economy. Individual Conservative candidates did support protective tariffs, Labour campaigned on opposition to public spending cuts, but found it difficult to defend the record of the partys former government and the fact that most of the cuts had been agreed before it fell. Historian Andrew Thorpe argues that Labour lost credibility by 1931 as unemployment soared, especially in coal, textiles, shipbuilding, the working class increasingly lost confidence in the ability of Labour to solve the most pressing problem. The 2.5 million Irish Catholics in England and Scotland were a factor in the Labour base in many industrial areas. The Catholic Church had previously tolerated the Labour Party, and denied that it represented true socialism, however, the bishops by 1930 had grown increasingly alarmed at Labours policies toward Communist Russia, toward birth control and especially toward funding Catholic schools. The Catholic shift against Labour and in favour of the National government played a role in Labours losses. In the event, the Labour vote fell sharply, and the National Government won a landslide majority, although the overwhelming majority of the Government MPs were Conservatives under the leadership of Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald remained Prime Minister in the new National government. The Liberals lacked the funds to contest the full range of seats, note, Seat changes are compared with the dissolution and are based on The Times House of Commons 1931 p. 134–6 with revisions from F. W. S. Craig. This differs from the above list in including seats where the incumbent was standing down, the aim is to provide a comparison with the previous election. In addition, it provides information about which party gained the seat, all comparisons are with the 1929 election. In some cases the change is due to the MP defecting to the gaining party, such circumstances are marked with a *

17.
United Kingdom general election, 1945
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The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, because of local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, owing in part to the time it took to transport the votes of those serving overseas and this resulted in Labour winning its first majority government, and a mandate to implement its postwar reforms. The 12. 0% national swing from the Conservative Party to the Labour Party remains the largest ever achieved in a British general election. Held less than two months after VE Day, it was the first general election since 1935, as general elections had been suspended during the Second World War. Attlee, Leader of the Labour Party, refused Churchills offer of continuing the Wartime Coalition until the Allied defeat of Japan, Parliament was dissolved on 15th June. It resulted in the defeat of the government led by Winston Churchill and the landslide victory of the Labour Party led by Clement Attlee. Henry Pelling, noting that polls showed a steady Labour lead after 1942, equally, though voters respected and liked Churchills wartime record, they were more distrustful of the Conservative Partys domestic and foreign policy record in the late 1930s. This was the first election in which Labour gained a majority of seats, the election was a disaster for the Liberal Party, as it lost all its urban seats, while their leader Archibald Sinclair lost his own rural Scottish seat. Baines says the defeat marked its transition from being a party of government to a party of the political fringe, the 8 seats won by National Labour in 1935 were not defended. With World War II coming to an end in Europe, the Labour Party decided to out of the wartime national coalition government. King George VI dissolved Parliament, which had been sitting for ten years without an election, what followed was perhaps one of the greatest swings of public confidence of the twentieth century. In May 1945, the month in which the War in Europe ended, Churchills approval ratings stood at 83%, Labour won overwhelming support while Churchill. Was both surprised and stunned by the defeat suffered by the Conservatives. The greatest factor in Labours dramatic win appeared to be the policy of social reform, the Beveridge Report, published in 1942, proposed the creation of a Welfare State. It called for a turn in British social policy, with provision for nationalised healthcare, expansion of state-funded education, National Insurance. The report was extremely popular, and copies of its findings were widely purchased, the Labour Party adopted the report eagerly. The Conservatives accepted many of the principles of the report, Labour offered a new comprehensive welfare policy, reflecting a consensus that social changes were needed. The Conservatives were not willing to make the concessions that Labour proposed

18.
United Kingdom general election, 1983
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The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive victory since that of Labour in 1945. Thatchers first four years as minister had not been an easy time. Unemployment increased during the first three years of her term and the economy went through a recession, however, the British victory in the Falklands War led to a recovery of her popularity, the economy had also returned to growth. By the time Thatcher called the election in May 1983, the Conservatives were most peoples firm favourites to win the election, the Labour Party had been led by Michael Foot since the resignation of James Callaghan. They had fared well in polls and local elections during this time. Labour adopted a platform that was considered more left-wing than usual, several moderate Labour MPs had left the party to form the Social Democrats. The Social Democrats then formed the SDP-Liberal Alliance with the existing Liberal Party, the opposition vote split almost evenly between the SDP/Liberal Alliance and Labour. This was the most recent election where a party in government increased its number of seats until 2015, the SDP/Liberal Alliance finished in third place but came within 700,000 votes of out-polling Labour. By gaining 25% of the vote, the Alliance won the largest such percentage for any third party since the 1923 general election. Despite this, they won only 23 seats, whereas Labour won 209, the Liberals argued that a proportional electoral system would have given them a more representative number of MPs. Changing the electoral system had been a long-running Liberal Party campaign plank, the election night was broadcast live on the BBC, and was presented by David Dimbleby, Robin Day and Peter Snow. It was also broadcast on ITV, and presented by Alastair Burnet, Peter Sissons, two future prime ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, were first elected as MPs in this election. Michael Foot was elected leader of the Labour party in 1980, the election of Foot signalled that the core of the party was swinging to the left and the move exacerbated divisions within the party. In 1981 a group of figures including Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers. The SDP agreed to a pact with the Liberals for the 1983 elections, the campaign displayed the huge divisions between the two major parties. The Conservatives key issues included employment, economic growth and defence, although, at barely 37 pages, it only seemed interminable, noted Roy Hattersley. Pro-Labour political journalist Michael White, writing in The Guardian, commented, There was something magnificently brave about Michael Foots campaign but it was like the Battle of the Somme

19.
United Kingdom general election, 1997
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The United Kingdom general election of 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. Under the leadership of Tony Blair, the Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition and won the election with a landslide victory, winning 418 seats. Blair, as a result, became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, under Blairs leadership, the Labour Party had adopted a more centrist policy platform under the name New Labour. This was seen as moving away from the traditionally more left-wing stance of the Labour Party, the Labour campaign was ultimately a success and the party returned an unprecedented 418 MPs and began the first of three consecutive terms for Labour in government. However,1997 remains the last election in which Labour had a net gain of seats, a record number of women were elected to parliament,120, of whom 101 were Labour MPs. This was in thanks to Labours policy of using all-women shortlists. The Conservative Party was led by incumbent Prime Minister John Major and ran their campaign emphasising falling unemployment, however, future Prime Minister Theresa May was elected to the safe Conservative seat at Maidenhead, and future Speaker John Bercow in the seat at Buckingham. The Scottish National Party returned 6 MPs, double their total in 1992, as with all general elections since the early 1950s, the results were broadcast live on the BBC, the presenters were David Dimbleby, Peter Snow and Jeremy Paxman. Labour had elected John Smith as its party leader in 1992, Blair brought the party closer to the political centre and abolished the partys Clause IV in their constitution, which had committed them to mass nationalisation of industry. Labour also reversed its policy on nuclear disarmament and the events of Black Wednesday allowed Labour to promise greater economic management under the Chancellorship of Gordon Brown. Fast-track punishment for persistent young offenders by halving the time from arrest to sentencing, cut NHS waiting lists by treating an extra 100,000 patients as a first step by releasing £100 million saved from NHS red tape. Get 250,000 under-25-year-olds off benefit and into work by using money from a levy on the privatised utilities. No rise in tax rates, cut VAT on heating to 5 per cent. Disputes within the Conservative government over European Union issues, and a variety of sleaze allegations had affected the governments popularity. The previous Parliament first sat on 29 April 1992, therefore, the latest date the election could have been held on was 22 May 1997. British elections have been held on Thursdays by convention since the 1930s, Prime Minister John Major called the election on Monday 17 March 1997, ensuring the formal campaign would be unusually long, at six weeks. The election was scheduled for 1 May, to coincide with the elections on the same day. This set a precedent, as the three subsequent general elections have also held alongside the May local elections

20.
Labour Party (UK)
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The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Labour later served in the coalition from 1940 to 1945. Labour was also in government from 1964 to 1970 under Harold Wilson and from 1974 to 1979, first under Wilson and then James Callaghan. The Labour Party was last in government from 1997 to 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, beginning with a majority of 179. Having won 232 seats in the 2015 general election, the party is the Official Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the party also organises in Northern Ireland, but does not contest elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Labour Party is a member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance. In September 2015, Jeremy Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party, the first Lib–Lab candidate to stand was George Odger in the Southwark by-election of 1870. In addition, several small socialist groups had formed around this time, among these were the Independent Labour Party, the intellectual and largely middle-class Fabian Society, the Marxist Social Democratic Federation and the Scottish Labour Party. In the 1895 general election, the Independent Labour Party put up 28 candidates, Keir Hardie, the leader of the party, believed that to obtain success in parliamentary elections, it would be necessary to join with other left-wing groups. Hardies roots as a lay preacher contributed to an ethos in the party led to the comment by 1950s General Secretary Morgan Phillips that Socialism in Britain owed more to Methodism than Marx. The motion was passed at all stages by the TUC, the meeting was attended by a broad spectrum of working-class and left-wing organisations—trades unions represented about one third of the membership of the TUC delegates. This created an association called the Labour Representation Committee, meant to coordinate attempts to support MPs sponsored by trade unions and it had no single leader, and in the absence of one, the Independent Labour Party nominee Ramsay MacDonald was elected as Secretary. He had the task of keeping the various strands of opinions in the LRC united. The October 1900 Khaki election came too soon for the new party to campaign effectively, only 15 candidatures were sponsored, but two were successful, Keir Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil and Richard Bell in Derby. Support for the LRC was boosted by the 1901 Taff Vale Case, the judgement effectively made strikes illegal since employers could recoup the cost of lost business from the unions. In their first meeting after the election the groups Members of Parliament decided to adopt the name The Labour Party formally, the Fabian Society provided much of the intellectual stimulus for the party. One of the first acts of the new Liberal Government was to reverse the Taff Vale judgement, the Peoples History Museum in Manchester holds the minutes of the first Labour Party meeting in 1906 and has them on display in the Main Galleries. Also within the museum is the Labour History Archive and Study Centre, the governing Liberals were unwilling to repeal this judicial decision with primary legislation

21.
Free trade
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Free trade is one of the most debated topics in economics of the 19th, 20th, and 21st century. Arguments over free trade can be divided into economic, moral, the World Trade Organization was created to open up markets and promote international trade based on the Free Trade paradigm. The WTO creates and monitors agreements to reduce trade barriers, and arbitrates in disputes over foreign market access and its definition of Free Trade is trade on a level playing field, so that the unlimited exchange of goods between countries is not necessarily Free. Therefore, any import restriction makes the domestic society as a whole worse off than it would be with unlimited imports, the artificial handicap of a foreign subsidy seems much less just to local production than advantages deriving from geography, natural resources, or native skill. Electorates often prefer fairplay to Utilitarian considerations, if trade barriers are already low, the threat of a trade war of tit-for-tat tariff increases may reduce the temptation for either partner in bilateral trade to raise import barriers. It would tend to decrease the power and revenue flowing to government bureaucrats. In the history of trade, two types of arguments have been advanced in favor of allowing purchases from abroad, and free trade in the broader sense. One set of arguments for free trade could be classified as moral arguments listed below, another set of arguments is essentially economic, that free trade will make society more prosperous. These are mostly technical arguments from the discipline of economics, starting especially with Smiths The Wealth of Nations, the 18th and 19th century intellectuals who backed free trade rarely did so under the rubric of increasing material wealth. In many cases this was given as the least important reason for free trade, rather, they argued that international society would be improved by increased commerce. Some of these, and later, sociopolitical arguments are listed here, adam Smith thought that protectionism against free trade was a scam on the public on behalf of producers, carried out in the name of nationalism. Even if overall economic interests had not been harmed by tariffs, classical economic analysis shows that free trade increases the global level of output because free trade permits specialization among countries. Specialization allows nations to devote their resources to the production of the particular goods. The benefits of specialization, coupled with economies of scale, increase the production possibility frontier. An increase in the production possibility frontier indicates that the absolute quantity of goods. Not only are the quantity of goods and services higher. Free trade policies are often associated with general laissez-faire economic politics and parties, voluntary exchange, by virtue of its voluntary nature, is assumed to be beneficial to the parties involved—why else would they engage in the exchange. Thus, the restriction of voluntary exchange restricts commerce and ultimately the accumulation of wealth in the absence of real-world externalities such as infant industry protection, here is the production possibilities frontier for a fictional country, Country A

22.
Joseph Chamberlain
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He split both major British parties in the course of his career. Chamberlain made his career in Birmingham, first as a manufacturer of screws and he was a radical Liberal Party member and an opponent of the Elementary Education Act 1870. As a self-made businessman, he had never attended university and had contempt for the aristocracy and he entered the House of Commons at 39 years of age, relatively late in life compared to politicians from more privileged backgrounds. Rising to power through his influence with the Liberal grassroots organisation, Chamberlain resigned from Gladstones Third Government in 1886 in opposition to Irish Home Rule. He helped to engineer a Liberal Party split and became a Liberal Unionist, from the 1895 general election the Liberal Unionists were in coalition with the Conservative Party, under Chamberlains former opponent Lord Salisbury. In that government Chamberlain promoted the Workmens Compensation Act 1897 and he served as Secretary of State for the Colonies, promoting a variety of schemes to build up the Empire in Asia, Africa, and the West Indies. He had major responsibility for causing the Second Boer War in South Africa and was the government minister most responsible for the war effort and he became a dominant figure in the Unionist Governments re-election at the Khaki Election in 1900. In 1903, he resigned from the Cabinet to campaign for tariff reform and he obtained the support of most Unionist MPs for this stance, but the Unionists suffered a landslide defeat at the 1906 general election. Shortly after public celebrations of his 70th birthday in Birmingham, he was disabled by a stroke, despite never becoming Prime Minister, he was one of the most important British politicians of his day, as well as a renowned orator and municipal reformer. Historian David Nicholls notes that his personality was not attractive, he was arrogant and ruthless and he never succeeded in his grand ambitions. However, he was a highly proficient grassroots organizer of democratic instincts and he is most famous for setting the agenda of British colonial, foreign, tariff and municipal policies, and for deeply splitting both major political parties. Chamberlain was born in Camberwell, then in Surrey to a shoe manufacturer also named Joseph. His younger brother was Richard Chamberlain, later also a Liberal politician and he was educated at University College School 1850–1852, excelling academically and gaining prizes in French and mathematics. At 18 he joined his uncles screw-making business, Nettlefolds of Birmingham, the company became known as Nettlefold and Chamberlain when Chamberlain became a partner with Joseph Nettlefold. During the businesss most prosperous period, it produced two-thirds of all metal screws made in England, Chamberlain married Harriet Kenrick, the daughter of Archibald Kenrick, in July 1861. Their daughter Beatrice Mary Chamberlain was born in May 1862, Harriet, who had had a premonition that she would die in childbirth, became ill two days after the birth of their son Joseph Austen in October 1863, and died three days later. Chamberlain devoted himself to business, while bringing up Beatrice and Austen with the Kenrick parents-in-law, in 1868, Chamberlain married for the second time, to Harriets cousin, Florence Kenrick, daughter of Timothy Kenrick. Chamberlain and Florence had four children, Arthur Neville in 1869, Ida in 1870, Hilda in 1871, on 13 February 1875, Florence gave birth to their fifth child, but she and the child died within a day

23.
Tariff Reform League
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It was well funded and included politicians, intellectuals and businessmen, and was popular with the grassroots of the Conservative Party. It was internally opposed by the Unionist Free Food League but that had disappeared as a viable force by 1910. By 1914 the Tariff Reform League had approximately 250,000 members and it is associated with the national campaign of Joseph Chamberlain, the most outspoken and charismatic supporter of Tariff Reform. The historian Bruce Murray has claimed that the TRL possessed fewer prejudices against large-scale government expenditure than any political group in Edwardian Britain. The League wanted to see the British Empire transformed into a trading bloc, to compete with Germany. It favoured imposing duties on imports—as did Germany and the US—and the channelling of the money raised from these duties into social reforms, high import duties, the League claimed, would make increasing other taxes unnecessary. However opponents claimed that protection would mean dearer food, especially bread, Sir Cyril Arthur Pearson was its chairman and, with Sir Harry Brittain, a founding member. Sir Henry Page Croft was chairman of its organisation committee, Pearson was later succeeded as chairman of the League by Viscount Ridley. The Conservative Party under Bonar Law slightly downplayed Tariff Reform as official policy, some wartime tariffs were, ironically, introduced by the Liberal Chancellor Reginald McKenna in 1915. Shortly after the First World War the TRL was disbanded, although other organisations promoting the cause were still active in the 1920s. One such organisation was the Fair Trade Union created by Joseph Chamberlains son, Neville, the British Commonwealth Union, led by Patrick Hannon, was another. Tariff Reform became official Conservative policy under Stanley Baldwin and was the issue in the 1923 general election. The party lost its majority in the election and Tariff Reform was again dropped until the 1930s, protectionism was eventually introduced by the Ottawa Agreements in 1932 and then dismantled at US insistence in the 1940s

24.
Liberal welfare reforms
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The Liberal welfare reforms were a series acts of social legislation passed by the British Liberal Party after the 1906 General Election. They represent the emergence of the welfare state in Great Britain. By implementing the reforms outside of the Poor Law the stigma attached to claiming relief was also removed, during the 1906 General Election campaign neither of the two major parties made poverty an important election issue and no promises were made to introduce welfare reforms. Despite this, the Liberals led by Henry Campbell-Bannerman and later H. H. Asquith won a landslide victory and began introducing wide-ranging reforms as soon as they took office. Historically, liberalism emphasized a system of government to protect liberty, historically, liberalism viewed the threat to liberty as mainly coming from the force and coercion of the state. Modern liberalism was an ideology which promoted a government as the best guardian of liberty – both theoretical liberty and effective liberty – through government aid. The social investigations of Charles Booth and Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree and these investigations helped change attitudes towards the causes of poverty. Booth carried out research into the poor living conditions and poverty experienced in London. These investigations provided statistical evidence for genuine moral concern for the poor and they stated that illness and old age were greater causes of poverty than idleness and moral weakness. Rowntree was himself a friend of Lloyd George, after the two met in 1907 after Lloyd George became President of the Board of Trade. Rowntree himself hoped that his proposals could influence Liberal policy, the threat from the emerging Labour Party. Socialism was an increasingly popular ideology, if the Liberals did not put forward popular policies, they were in danger of losing votes and handing the House of Commons to the Conservatives. The trade union movement was growing especially during the period 1910–1912, unless living conditions were improved, there were genuine concerns that workers may turn to communism or rebellion. The condition of soldiers during the Boer War was considered unacceptable, the British government had trouble enlisting enough able-bodied recruits to the British army. The emergence of public works schemes set up to improve living conditions which were run by the Liberals raised the possibility that such schemes could occur on a national scale. The Conservative government in office before the Liberals came to power passed the Unemployed Workmen Act 1905, slum housing was also cleared for new houses to be built. Much of this legislation was left for local authorities to implement – their attitudes affected whether legislation was fully implemented, in 1902 Conservatives passed the Education Act that provided funds for denominational religious instruction in Church of England and Roman Catholic schools. The Nonconformists who formed a major Liberal constituency, were outraged at the help to their theological enemies, a favourite goal of Protestant nonconformists was to sharply reduce the heavy drinking by closing as many pubs as possible

25.
Parliament Act 1911
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The Parliament Act 1911 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is constitutionally important and partly governs the relationship between the House of Commons and the House of Lords which make up the Houses of Parliament and this Act and the Parliament Act 1949 must be construed together as one. The two Acts may be cited together as the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, following the rejection of the 1909 Peoples Budget, the House of Commons sought to establish its formal dominance over the House of Lords, which had broken convention in opposing the bill. The budget was passed by the Lords after the Commons democratic mandate was confirmed by holding elections in January 1910. The Act effectively removed the right of the Lords to veto money bills completely and it also reduced the maximum term of a parliament from seven years to five. Until the Parliament Act 1911, there was no way to contradictions between the two houses of parliament except through the creation of additional peers by the monarch. Queen Anne had created 12 Tory peers to vote through the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. E, gladstone won the 1868 election on the issue. However, in practice, this gave the Lords a right to demand that public support be present. It was the wisdom that the House of Lords could not amend money bills. This did not, however, despite the apparent contradiction, prevent it from rejecting such bills outright, in 1860, with the repeal of the paper duties, all money bills were consolidated into a single budget. This denied the Lords the ability to reject individual components and the prospect of voting down the budget was seemingly unpalatable. It was only in 1909 that this possibility became a reality, prior to the Act, the Lords had had rights equal to those of the Commons over legislation but, by convention, did not utilise its right of veto over financial measures. There had been an overwhelming Conservative-Unionist majority in the Lords since the Liberal split in 1886, with the Liberal Party attempting to push through significant welfare reforms with considerable popular support, problems seemed certain to arise in the relationship between the houses. This led to the 26 June 1907 resolution in the House of Commons declaring that the Lords power should be curtailed, put forward by Liberal Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman. In 1909, hoping to force an election, the Lords rejected the bill based on the government budget put forward by David Lloyd George. This action, according to the Commons, was a breach of the constitution, the Liberal governments representation in parliament dropped heavily, but the regime retained a majority with the help of a significant number of Irish Nationalist and Labour MPs. The Irish Nationalists saw the power of the Lords as detrimental to securing Irish Home Rule. Following the election, the Lords relented on the budget, and it passed the Lords on 28 April, the Lords was now faced with the prospect of a Parliament Act, which had considerable support from the Irish Nationalists

26.
United Kingdom general election, 1895
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The United Kingdom general election of 1895 was held between 13 July and 7 August 1895. It was won by the Conservatives led by Lord Salisbury who formed an alliance with the Liberal Unionist Party and had a majority over the Liberals. The Irish Parliamentary Party was split at this time, the majority of its MPs following John Dillon whilst a rump followed John Redmond, the 1895 general election and political change in late Victorian Britain

27.
Food prices
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Food prices refer to the price level for food in particular countries or regions or on a global scale. The food industrys contribution to the levels and fluctuations come from the food production process, food marketing. Source of uncontrollable price fluctuations are varying crop yield from excess supply to harvest failure and it is speculated that already the global climate change could be a major factor behind rising food prices. A continuing drought in South Africa may - amongst other factors - have food inflation soar 11% until end of 2016 according to the South African Reserve Bank, to a certain extent, adverse price trends can be counteracted by food politics. When food commodities become too expensive on the market, food security is in danger especially for developing countries. In keeping with the supply and demand-principle, global prices will on average continue to rise with the world population. Consumer prices in the countries are massively influenced by the power of discount stores. In particular, Western pattern diet constituents like those that are processed by fast food chains are comparatively cheap in the Western hemisphere, profits rely primarily on quantity, less than high-price quality. For some product classes like dairy or meat, overproduction has twisted the price relations in a way utterly unknown in underdeveloped countries, the situation for poor societies is worsened by certain free trade agreements that allow easier export of food in the southern direction than vice versa. The Numbeo database allows you to see, share and compare information about food prices worldwide, the FAO food price index is a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a market basket of food commodities. Food Rebellions, Crisis and the Hunger for Justice, cS1 maint, Uses editors parameter Fast Food Nation, What The All-American Meal is Doing to the World. 1975 food prize study, part 1, prepared by the staff of the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, United States Senate. 1975 food prize study, part 2, prepared by the staff of the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, United States Senate. Economic Research Service in the U. S. Department of Agriculture

28.
Protectionist
–
Protectionist policies protect the producers, businesses and workers of the import-competing sector in a country from foreign competitors. According to proponents, these policies can counteract unfair trade practices, protectionists may favor the policy in order to decrease the trade deficit, maintain employment in certain sectors, or favor the growth of certain industries. In recent years, protectionism has become closely aligned with the anti-globalization movement, There is a broad consensus among economists that the impact of protectionism on economic growth is largely negative, although the impact on specific industries and groups of people may be positive. The doctrine of protectionism contrasts with the doctrine of free trade, a variety of policies have been used to achieve protectionist goals. Tariff rates usually vary according to the type of goods imported, import tariffs will increase the cost to importers, and increase the price of imported goods in the local markets, thus lowering the quantity of goods imported, to favour local producers. Tariffs may also be imposed on exports, and in an economy with floating exchange rates, however, since export tariffs are often perceived as hurting local industries, while import tariffs are perceived as helping local industries, export tariffs are seldom implemented. Import quotas, To reduce the quantity and therefore increase the price of imported goods. The economic effects of a quota is similar to that of a tariff. Economists often suggest that import licenses be auctioned to the highest bidder, administrative barriers, Countries are sometimes accused of using their various administrative rules as a way to introduce barriers to imports. Anti-dumping legislation, Supporters of anti-dumping laws argue that they prevent dumping of cheaper foreign goods that would cause local firms to close down, however, in practice, anti-dumping laws are usually used to impose trade tariffs on foreign exporters. Direct subsidies, Government subsidies are given to local firms that cannot compete well against imports. These subsidies are purported to protect jobs, and to help local firms adjust to the world markets. Export subsidies, Export subsidies are often used by governments to increase exports, Export subsidies have the opposite effect of export tariffs because exporters get payment, which is a percentage or proportion of the value of exported. Export subsidies increase the amount of trade, and in a country with floating exchange rates, have similar to import subsidies. Exchange rate control, A government may intervene in the exchange market to lower the value of its currency by selling its currency in the foreign exchange market. Doing so will raise the cost of imports and lower the cost of exports, international patent systems, There is an argument for viewing national patent systems as a cloak for protectionist trade policies at a national level. Peter Drahos explains that States realized that patent systems could be used to cloak protectionist strategies, There were also reputational advantages for states to be seen to be sticking to intellectual property systems. In the modern trade arena many other initiatives besides tariffs have been called protectionist, for example, some commentators, such as Jagdish Bhagwati, see developed countries efforts in imposing their own labor or environmental standards as protectionism

29.
Second Boer War
–
The Second Boer War, usually known as the Boer War and also at the time as the South African War, started on 11 October 1899 and ended on 31 May 1902. Great Britain defeated two Boer states in South Africa, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, Britain was aided by its Cape Colony, Colony of Natal and some native African allies. The British war effort was supported by volunteers from the British Empire, including Southern Africa, the Australian colonies, Canada, India. All other nations were neutral, but public opinion in them was largely hostile to Britain, inside Britain and its Empire there also was significant opposition to the Second Boer War. The British were overconfident and under-prepared, the Boers were very well armed and struck first, besieging Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking in early 1900, and winning important battles at Colenso, Magersfontein and Stormberg. Staggered, the British brought in numbers of soldiers and fought back. General Redvers Buller was replaced by Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener and they relieved the three besieged cities, and invaded the two Boer republics in late 1900. The onward marches of the British Army were so overwhelming that the Boers did not fight staged battles in defense of their homeland, the British quickly seized control of all of the Orange Free State and Transvaal, as the civilian leadership went into hiding or exile. In conventional terms, the war was over, Britain officially annexed the two countries in 1900, and called a khaki election to give the government another six years of power in London. However, the Boers refused to surrender and they reverted to guerrilla warfare under new generals Louis Botha, Jan Smuts, Christiaan de Wet and Koos de la Rey. Two more years of attacks and quick escapes followed. As guerrillas without uniforms, the Boer fighters easily blended into the farmlands, which provided hiding places, supplies, the British solution was to set up complex nets of block houses, strong points, and barbed wire fences, partitioning off the entire conquered territory. The civilian farmers were relocated into concentration camps, where very large proportions died of disease, especially the children, then the British mounted infantry units systematically tracked down the highly mobile Boer guerrilla units. The battles at this stage were small operations with few combat casualties The war ended in surrender, the British successfully won over the Boer leaders, who now gave full support to the new political system. Both former republics were incorporated into the Union of South Africa in 1910, the conflict is commonly referred to as simply the Boer War, since the First Boer War is much less well known. Boer was the term for Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans descended from the Dutch East India Companys original settlers at the Cape of Good Hope. It is officially called the South African War and it is known as the Anglo-Boer War among some South Africans. In Afrikaans it may be called the Anglo-Boereoorlog, Tweede Boereoorlog, in South Africa it is officially called the South African War

30.
Internment
–
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The term is used for the confinement of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects. Thus, while it can simply mean imprisonment, it tends to refer to preventive confinement, use of these terms is subject to debate and political sensitivities. Interned persons may be held in prisons or in known as internment camps. In certain contexts, these may also be known either officially or pejoratively, internment also refers to a neutral countrys practice of detaining belligerent armed forces and equipment on its territory during times of war under the Hague Convention of 1907. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights restricts the use of internment, article 9 states that No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. The United States set up camps for Cherokee and other Native Americans in the 1830s. From 1863 to 1868, the U. S, military persecuted and imprisoned 9,500 Navajo and 500 Mescalero Apache. Living under armed guards, more than 3,500 Navajo and Mescalero Apache men, women, the term concentration camp saw wider use during the Second Boer War, when the British operated such camps in South Africa for interning Boers. They built 45 tented camps for Boer internees and 64 for black Africans, of the 28,000 Boer men captured as prisoners of war, the British sent 25,630 overseas. The vast majority of Boers remaining in the camps were women and children. Some of them managed to go into exile or went off to join the armies of the Allies in order to fight against the Axis powers, while others ended up in Nazi concentration camps. During the 20th century, the internment of civilians by the state reached its most notorious excesses with the establishment of the Nazi concentration camps. The Nazi concentration camp system was notable for its size, with as many as 15,000 camps. Moreover, Nazi Germany established six camps, specifically designed to kill millions

31.
Seebohm Rowntree
–
Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, CH was an English sociological researcher, social reformer and industrialist. He is known in particular for his three York studies of poverty conducted in 1899,1935, and 1951, the first York study involved a comprehensive survey into the living conditions of the poor in York during which investigators visited every working class home. Rowntrees argument that poverty was the result of low wages went against the traditionally held view that the poor were responsible for their own plight and he was educated first privately and then from the age of 10 at Bootham School. Rowntree studied chemistry at Owens College, Manchester for five terms before joining the firm in 1889. He became a director in 1897 when the became a limited liability company and was the chairman from 1923 to 1941. In 1897 he married Lydia Potter, daughter of Edwin Potter, after his wife died, he lived in a wing of Disraelis old house, Hughenden Manor, where he died after a heart attack. Rowntree investigated poverty in York, inspired by the work of his father Joseph Rowntree and he carried out a comprehensive survey into the living conditions of the poor in York during which investigators visited every working class home. This amounted to the study of 11,560 families or 46,754 individuals. The results of study were published in 1901 in his book Poverty. In Rowntrees work, he surveyed rich families in York and drew a poverty line in terms of a weekly sum of money necessary to enable families. To secure the necessaries of a healthy life, the money needed for this subsistence level of existence covered fuel and light, rent, food, clothing, and household and personal items, adjusted according to family size. He determined this level using scientific methods which hadnt been applied to the study of poverty before, for example, he consulted leading nutritionists of the period to discover the minimum calorific intake and nutritional balance necessary before people got ill or lost weight. He then surveyed the prices of food in York to discover what the cheapest prices in the area for the food needed for this minimum diet were, according to this measure,27.84 percent of the total population of York lived below the poverty line. He placed those below his poverty line into two groups depending on the reason for their poverty and those in primary poverty did not have enough income to meet the expenditure necessary for their basic needs. Those classed as in secondary poverty had high enough income to meet basic needs, from this he formulated the idea of the poverty cycle in which some people moved in and out of absolute poverty during their lives. Rowntrees argument that poverty was the result of low wages went against the traditionally held view that the poor were responsible for their own plight, Rowntree conducted a further study of poverty in York in 1936 under the title Poverty and Progress. This was based largely on a research method as his earlier study. However, as he changed his definition of the poverty line, in this study he included allowances for some items which were not strictly necessary for survival, these included newspapers, books, radios, beer, tobacco, holidays, and presents

32.
York
–
York is a historic walled city at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The municipality is the county town of Yorkshire to which it gives its name. The city has a heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events in England throughout much of its two millennia of existence. The city offers a wealth of attractions, of which York Minster is the most prominent. The city was founded by the Romans as Eboracum in 71 AD and it became the capital of the Roman province of Britannia Inferior, and later of the kingdoms of Northumbria and Jórvík. In the Middle Ages, York grew as a wool trading centre and became the capital of the northern ecclesiastical province of the Church of England. In the 19th century, York became a hub of the railway network, in recent decades, the economy of York has moved from being dominated by its confectionery and railway-related industries to one that provides services. The University of York and health services have become major employers, from 1996, the term City of York describes a unitary authority area which includes rural areas beyond the old city boundaries. In 2011 the urban area had a population of 153,717, the word York derives from the Latinised name for the city, variously rendered as Eboracum, Eburacum or Eburaci. The first mention of York by this name is dated to circa 95–104 AD as an address on a wooden stylus tablet from the Roman fortress of Vindolanda in Northumberland, the toponymy of Eboracum is uncertain because the language of the pre-Roman indigenous population was never recorded. They are thought to have spoken a Celtic language related to modern Welsh, in his Historia Regum Britanniae the 12th century chronicler, Geoffrey of Monmouth, suggests the name derives from that of a pre-Roman city founded by the legendary king Ebraucus. Alternatively, the word already existed as an Old English word for wild swine. The Anglo-Saxon newcomers probably interpreted the part as eofor, and -rac as ric, while -um was a common abbreviation of the Saxon -heem. To them, it sounded as a home rich in boar, as is common in Saxon place names, the -um part gradually faded, eoforic. When the Danish army conquered the city in 866, its name became Jórvík, the Old French and Norman name of the city following the Norman Conquest was recorded as Everwic in works such as Waces Roman de Rou. The form York was first recorded in the 13th century, many company and place names, such as the Ebor race meeting, refer to the Roman name. The Archbishop of York uses Ebor as his surname in his signature, archaeological evidence suggests that Mesolithic people settled in the region of York between 8000 and 7000 BC, although it is not known whether their settlements were permanent or temporary. By the time of the Roman conquest of Britain, the area was occupied by a known to the Romans as the Brigantes

33.
Poverty threshold
–
The poverty threshold, poverty limit or poverty line is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is higher in developed countries than in developing countries. In 2008, the World Bank came out with a figure of $1.25 at 2005 purchasing-power parity, the new IPL replaces the $1.25 per day figure, which used 2005 data. Most scholars agree that it better reflects todays reality, particularly new price levels in developing countries, the common international poverty line has in the past been roughly $1 a day. At present the percentage of the population living under extreme poverty is likely to fall below 10% according to the World Bank projections released in 2015. Determining the poverty line is usually done by finding the total cost of all the resources that an average human adult consumes in one year. Individual factors are used to account for various circumstances, such as whether one is a parent, elderly. The poverty threshold may be adjusted annually, charles Booth, a pioneering investigator of poverty in London at the turn of the 20th century, popularised the idea of a poverty line, a concept originally conceived by the London School Board. Booth set the line at 10 to 20 shillings per week, to secure the necessaries of a healthy life, which included fuel and light, rent, food, clothing, and household and personal items. Based on data from leading nutritionists of the period, he calculated the cheapest price for the minimum calorific intake and nutritional balance necessary and he considered this amount to set his poverty line and concluded that 27. 84% of the total population of York lived below this poverty line. Rowntree distinguished between primary poverty, those lacking in income and secondary poverty, those who had enough income, Absolute poverty is the level of poverty as defined in terms of the minimal requirements necessary to afford minimal standards of food, clothing, health care and shelter. For the measure to be absolute, the line must be the same in different countries, cultures, such an absolute measure should look only at the individuals power to consume and it should be independent of any changes in income distribution. Notice that if real income in an economy increases. Measuring poverty by a threshold has the advantage of applying the same standard across different locations and time periods. For example, a living in far northern Scandinavia requires a source of heat during colder months. The term absolute poverty is sometimes used as a synonym for extreme poverty. Absolute poverty is the absence of resources to secure basic life necessities. It depends not only on income but also on access to services, safe drinking water, Water must not come solely from rivers and ponds, and must be available nearby

34.
Nonconformist
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In English church history, a nonconformist was a Protestant Christian who did not conform to the governance and usages of the established Church of England. Broad use of the term was precipitated after the Restoration of the British monarchy in 1660, by the late 19th-century the term specifically included the Reformed Christians, plus the Baptists and Methodists. The English Dissenters such as the Puritans who violated the Act of Uniformity 1559 — typically by practising radical, sometimes separatist, in England and Wales in the late 19th century the new terms free churchman and Free Church started to replace dissenter or Nonconformist. One influential nonconformist minister is Matthew Henry, who beginning in 1710 published his multi-volume Commentary that is still used, issac Watts is an equally recognized nonconformist minister whose hymns are still sung by Christians worldwide. The Act of Uniformity of 1662 required churchmen to use all rites and ceremonies as prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. Consequently, nearly 2,000 clergymen were ejected from the church for refusing to comply with the provisions of the act. The Great Ejection created an abiding public consciousness of non-conformity, thereafter, a Nonconformist was any English subject belonging to a non-Anglican church or a non-Christian religion. More broadly, any person who advocated religious liberty was typically called out as Nonconformist, culturally, in England and Wales, discrimination against Nonconformists endured even longer. Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Calvinists, other reformed groups, following the act, other groups, including Methodists, Unitarians, Quakers, Plymouth Brethren, and the English Moravians were officially labelled as Nonconformists as they became established. A religious census in 1851 revealed Nonconformist comprised about half that of the people who attended services on Sundays. In the larger manufacturing areas, Nonconformists clearly outnumbered members of the Church of England, in Wales in 1850, Nonconformist chapel attendance significantly outnumbered Anglican church attendance. Historians distinguish two categories of Dissenters, or Nonconformists, in addition to the evangelicals or Low Church element in the Church of England, Old Dissenters, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, included Baptists, Congregationalists, Quakers, Unitarians, and Presbyterians outside Scotland. New Dissenters emerged in the 18th century and were mainly Methodists, the Nonconformist Conscience was their moral sensibility which they tried to implement in British politics. The Nonconformist conscience of the Old group emphasized religious freedom and equality, pursuit of justice, and opposition to discrimination, compulsion, the New Dissenters stressed personal morality issues, including sexuality, temperance, family values, and Sabbath-keeping. Both factions were active, but until mid-19th century the Old group supported mostly Whigs and Liberals in politics. In the late 19th the New Dissenters mostly switched to the Liberal Party, the result was a merging of the two groups, strengthening their great weight as a political pressure group. The joined together on new issues especially regarding schools and temperance, by 1914 the linkage was weakening and by the 1920s it was virtually dead. Dissenters demanded removal of political and civil disabilities that applied to them, the Anglican establishment strongly resisted until 1828

35.
Education Act 1902
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The Education Act 1902, also known as the Balfour Act, was a highly controversial Act of Parliament that set the pattern of elementary education in England and Wales for four decades. It was passed by the Conservative Party and was supported by the Church of England, and opposed by Nonconformists, the Act provided funds for denominational religious instruction in voluntary elementary schools, owned primarily by the Church of England and Roman Catholics. It was extended in 1903 to cover London, the Act was a short-term political disaster for the Conservative Party who lost massively in the 1906 general election. However Searle argues it was long-term success and it standardized and upgraded the educational systems of England and Wales, and led to a rapid growth of secondary schools, with over 1,000 opening by 1914, including 349 for girls. The Church schools now had solid financing from local ratepayers and had to meet uniform standards, eventually, the Anglican schools were nationalized. The Cockerton Judgment of 1901 caused a crisis by undermining the legality of higher schools for children over 12. A temporary fix allowed the schools to one more year. A second issue involved the 14,000 church schools, called voluntary schools, run chiefly by the Church of England and they were poorly funded and did not receive local tax moneys, but they educated a third of the school children. There were too many overlapping jurisdictions, with 2568 school boards set up by the Elementary Education Act 1870 and these were all abolished with their duties being handed over to local borough or county councils, as local education authorities. There were now 328 LEAs, which set tax rates. The LEAs could establish new secondary and technical schools as well as developing the system of elementary schools. These LEAs were in charge of paying teachers, ensuring the teachers were qualified and providing necessary books. They paid the teachers in the schools, with the churches providing and maintaining school buildings. The Church Party, a Conservative faction strongly supportive of the Church of England, under the leadership of Lord Cranborne ( it was determined to stop the spread of secularism in education. With John Gilbert Talbot, Cranborne organized opposition to the Education Department and they blocked the Education Departments attempts to slow the growth of Anglican schools. They successfully passed the Voluntary Schools Act, an interim measure and they demanded long-term legislation in 1897-1901, and scored their great victory in 1902. The design and drafting of the Bill was the work of Robert Laurie Morant and he worked closely with Balfour and Church leaders in 1901. Joseph Chamberlains support base was threatened by Balfours introduction into Parliament of the Education Bill and this Bill was framed with the intention of promoting National Efficiency, a cause which Chamberlain thought worthy

36.
Pub
–
A pub, or public house, is an establishment licensed to sell alcoholic drinks, which traditionally include beer, ale and cider. It is a relaxed, social drinking establishment and a prominent part of British, Irish, New Zealand, Canadian, in many places, especially in villages, a pub is the focal point of the community. In his 17th century diary Samuel Pepys described the pub as the heart of England, Pubs can be traced back to Roman taverns, through the Anglo-Saxon alehouse to the development of the tied house system in the 19th century. In 1393, King Richard II of England introduced legislation that pubs had to display a sign outdoors to make them easily visible for passing ale tasters who would assess the quality of ale sold, most pubs focus on offering beers, ales and similar drinks. As well, pubs often sell wines, spirits, and soft drinks, meals, the owner, tenant or manager is known as the pub landlord or publican. The pub quiz was established in the UK in the 1970s and these alehouses quickly evolved into meeting houses for the folk to socially congregate, gossip and arrange mutual help within their communities. Herein lies the origin of the public house, or Pub as it is colloquially called in England. They rapidly spread across the Kingdom, becoming so commonplace that in 965 King Edgar decreed that there should be no more than one alehouse per village. A traveller in the early Middle Ages could obtain overnight accommodation in monasteries, the Hostellers of London were granted guild status in 1446 and in 1514 the guild became the Worshipful Company of Innholders. A survey in 1577 of drinking establishment in England and Wales for taxation purposes recorded 14,202 alehouses,1,631 inns, Inns are buildings where travellers can seek lodging and, usually, food and drink. They are typically located in the country or along a highway, in Europe, they possibly first sprang up when the Romans built a system of roads two millennia ago. Some inns in Europe are several centuries old, in addition to providing for the needs of travellers, inns traditionally acted as community gathering places. In Europe, it is the provision of accommodation, if anything, the latter tend to provide alcohol, but less commonly accommodation. Famous London inns include The George, Southwark and The Tabard, there is however no longer a formal distinction between an inn and other kinds of establishment. In North America, the aspect of the word inn lives on in hotel brand names like Holiday Inn. The Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery in London started as ordinary inns where barristers met to do business, traditional English ale was made solely from fermented malt. The practice of adding hops to produce beer was introduced from the Netherlands in the early 15th century, alehouses would each brew their own distinctive ale, but independent breweries began to appear in the late 17th century. By the end of the century almost all beer was brewed by commercial breweries, the 18th century saw a huge growth in the number of drinking establishments, primarily due to the introduction of gin

37.
Temperance movement
–
The Temperance movement is a social movement against the consumption of alcoholic beverages. The temperance movement began in the early 19th century, before this, although there were pieces published against drunkenness and excess, total abstinence from alcohol was very rarely advocated or practiced. There was also a concentration on hard spirits rather than on abstinence from alcohol, an early temperance movement began during the American Revolution in Connecticut, Virginia and New York state, with farmers forming associations to ban whiskey distilling. The movement spread to eight states, advocating temperance rather than abstinence, the American Temperance Society was formed in 1826, within 12 years claiming more than 8,000 local groups and over 1,250,000 members. He mainly concentrated his fire on the elimination of spirits rather than wine, on 14 August 1829 he wrote a letter in the Belfast Telegraph publicizing his views on temperance. He also formed the Ulster Temperance Movement with other Presbyterian clergy, the 1830s saw a tremendous growth in temperance groups, not just in England and the United States, but also in British colonies, especially New Zealand and Australia. In the 1830s a more form of temperance emerged called teetotalism. This movement originated in Preston, England, in 1833, the Catholic temperance movement started in 1838 when the Irish priest Theobald Mathew established the Teetotal Abstinence Society in 1838. In 1838, the working class movement for universal suffrage for men, Chartism. During the Victorian period, the movement became more radical, advocating the legal prohibition of all alcohol. It was also perceived to be tied in both religious renewal and progressive politics, particularly female suffrage. In 1855, an organisation was formed amidst an explosion of Band of Hope work. Meetings were held in churches throughout the UK and included Christian teaching, the group also campaigned politically for the curtailment of the influence of pubs and brewers. In this period there was success at restricting or banning the sale of alcohol in many parts of the United States, New Zealand. The Temperance movement was a significant mass movement at this time, numerous periodicals devoted to temperance were also published and temperance theatre, which had started in the 1820s, became an important part of the American cultural landscape at this time. The Salvation Army quickly spread internationally, maintaining an emphasis on abstinence, many of the most important prohibitionist groups, such as the avowedly prohibitionist United Kingdom Alliance and the US-based Womans Christian Temperance Union, were started in this time. In 1898 the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association was formed by James Cullen, an Irish Catholic, the Anti-Saloon League was an organization that began in 1893 in Ohio. A favorite goal of the British Temperance movement was to reduce the heavy drinking by closing as many pubs as possible

38.
England and Wales
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The devolved National Assembly for Wales was created in 1999 by the Parliament of the United Kingdom under the Government of Wales Act 1998 and provides a degree of self-government in Wales. The powers of the Assembly were expanded by the Government of Wales Act 2006, which allows it to pass its own laws, there is no equivalent body for England, which is directly governed by the Parliament and the government of the United Kingdom. During the Roman occupation of Britain, the area of present-day England and Wales was administered as a single unit, at that time, most of the native inhabitants of Roman Britain spoke Brythonic languages, and were all regarded as Britons, divided into numerous tribes. After the conquest, the Romans administered this region as a single unit and this aimed to replace Welsh criminal law with English law. Welsh law continued to be used for civil cases until the annexation of Wales to England in the 16th century, the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 then consolidated the administration of all the Welsh territories and incorporated them fully into the legal system of the Kingdom of England. Prior to 1746 it was not clear whether a reference to England in legislation included Wales and this specified that in all prior and future laws, references to England would by default include Wales. The Wales and Berwick Act was repealed in 1967, although the definition of England it created is preserved for acts passed prior to its repeal. Since the Acts repeal what was referred to as England is now England and Wales, while references to England, England and Wales are treated as a single unit, for most purposes, because the two form the constitutional successor to the former Kingdom of England. The continuance of Scots law was guaranteed under the 1706 Treaty of Union that led to the Acts of Union 1707, thus, most laws applicable to England also applied to Wales. However, Parliament now passes laws applicable to Wales and not to England, examples are the Welsh Language Acts 1967 and 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998. Measures and Acts of the National Assembly for Wales passed since the Government of Wales Act 2006 also apply in Wales, following the Government of Wales Act, effective since May 2007, the National Assembly for Wales can legislate on matters devolved to it. Following a referendum on 3 March 2011, the Welsh Assembly gained direct law-making powers and this was the first time in almost 500 years that Wales had its own powers to legislate. Each piece of Welsh legislation is known as an Act of the Assembly, outside of the legal system the position is mixed. Some organisations combine as England and Wales, others are separate, some religious denominations organise on the basis of England and Wales, most notably the Roman Catholic Church, but also small denominations, e. g. the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Prior to the disestablishment of the Church in Wales in 1920, the Electoral Commission maintains a register of political parties, organised according to where the party operates. The order of precedence in England and Wales is distinct from those of Northern Ireland and Scotland, the national parks of England and Wales have a distinctive legislative framework and history. Courts of England and Wales Judiciary of England and Wales Cultural relationship between the Welsh and the English Geography of Wales Geography of England British Isles

39.
Derby (UK Parliament constituency)
–
Derby is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and it was represented by two members of parliament. It was divided into the constituencies of Derby North and Derby South in 1950. Derby regularly sent two representatives to Parliament from Edward I’s reign, in 1950 the constituency was abolished and replaced by the two single-member constituencies of Derby North and Derby South. General Election 1914/15, Another General Election was required to place before the end of 1915

40.
Social Democratic Federation
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The Social Democratic Federation was established as Britains first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James Connolly, however, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marxs long-term collaborator, refused to support Hyndmans venture. Many of its leading members had previously been active in the Manhood Suffrage League. The British Marxist movement effectively began in 1880 when a businessman named Henry M. Hyndman read Karl Marxs magnum opus Capital in French translation while crossing to America, upon his return to London, Hyndman sought out Marx, then an exile living not far from his home. In preparation for the convention, Hyndman circulated among the delegates his book England for All, Marx took great offence and broke off personal relations with his English epigone. The Federation was strongly opposed to the Liberal Party which then claimed to represent the movement in parliament. The party attracted to its banner a number of Britains leading radicals, including William Morris, Edward Aveling and his partner Eleanor Marx, Henry Hyndman dominated the SDF from the beginning. One key to his personal authority lay in his purse, which paid the bulk of its administrative expenses, some in the Federation were unhappy, regarding Hyndman as domineering in personal relations and sectarian in political thinking. Hyndmans detractors considered him politically ambitious and lacking in principle, and their ill will, for more detail, see Socialist League. Hyndman gathered his supporters for his defense, while his opponents, who included William Morris, Belfort Bax, Eleanor Marx. After protracted debate, on 27 December a motion of censure on Hyndman was adopted, after which the majority of the Council, freshly victorious and they considered Hyndman opportunistic and obsessed with parliamentary politics to the detriment of trade union organisation. Hyndman retained the party publications Justice and To-Day and the 500 or so members of the SDF chose sides as one small organisation became two smaller ones, the SDFs foray into electoral politics had proven to be both controversial and wholly ineffective. In the winter of 1885/86 the SDF made its first appreciable advance in the public eye, the SDF agitated for the Right to Work and made demands for the establishment of state-directed co-operative colonies on underutilised lands. The police forced the SDF-led demonstration out of the Square, john Burns led the protesters down Pall Mall en route to Hyde Park bearing a red flag. Along the way the marchers scuffled with jeering onlookers and a riot ensued, with smashed windows, the party claimed a big boost in membership in the aftermath, with its official organ, Justice, selling 4,000 copies of each issue. The next autumn a protest of socialists and radicals was called for Trafalgar Square for 13 November 1887. This body of police and military forces used horses, batons, some 200 demonstrators were taken to the hospital,150 of whom needed surgical treatment. Three hundred demonstrators were arrested and 112 police officers injured and this demonstration and its forcible suppression became known as Bloody Sunday to a generation

41.
H. M. Hyndman
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Henry Mayers Hyndman was an English writer and politician, and the founder of the Social Democratic Federation and the National Socialist Party. The son of a businessman, Hyndman was born 7 March 1842 in London. After being educated at home, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, Hyndman later recalled, I had the ordinary education of a well-to-do boy and young man. I read mathematics hard until I went to Cambridge, where I ought, of course, to have read them harder, Trinity or, for that matter, any other college, is practically a hot-bed of reaction from the social point of view. The young men regard all who are not technically gentlemen as cads, I was a thorough-going Radical and Republican in those days — theoretically. With a great admiration for John Stuart Mill, and later, I remember, after achieving his degree in 1865 he studied law for two years before deciding to become a journalist. As a first-class cricketer, he represented Cambridge University, MCC, in 1866 Hyndman reported on the Italian war with Austria for the Pall Mall Gazette. Hyndman was horrified by the reality of war and became ill after visiting the front line. Hyndman met the leaders of the Italian nationalist movement and was sympathetic to their cause. In 1869 Hyndman toured the world, visiting the United States, Australia and he continued to write for the Pall Mall Gazette, where he praised the merits of British imperialism and criticised those advocating Home Rule for Ireland. Hyndman was also hostile to the experiments in democracy that were taking place in the United States. Denounced as a Tory by William Ewart Gladstone, Hyndman got very little support from the electorate and, facing certain defeat, soon after the election, Hyndman read a novel based on the life of Ferdinand Lassalle. He became fascinated with Lassalle and decided to research this romantic hero who had killed in a duel in 1864. Hyndman was also influenced by the book Progress and Poverty. Hyndman then decided to form Britains first socialist political party, the Democratic Federation had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. However, Friedrich Engels, Marxs long-term collaborator, refused to support Hyndmans venture, Hyndman wrote the first popularisation of the ideas of Karl Marx in the English language, England for All in 1881. The book was successful, a fact that stoked Marxs antipathy given the fact that he had failed to credit Marx by name in the introduction. The work was followed in 1883 by Socialism Made Plain, which expounded the policies of what by then had been renamed as the Social Democratic Federation and they included a demand for universal suffrage and the nationalisation of the means of production and distribution

The old Chamber of the House of Commons built by Sir Charles Barry was destroyed by German bombs during the Second World War. The essential features of Barry's design were preserved when the Chamber was rebuilt.

Another picture of the old House of Commons chamber. Note the dark veneer on the wood, which was purposely made much brighter in the new chamber.

The Speaker presides over debates in the House of Commons, as depicted in the above print commemorating the destruction of the Commons Chamber by fire in 1834.

Liberal poster c.1905-10, Clockwise from the left: Joseph Chamberlain abandons his commitment to old age pensions; Chancellor Austen Chamberlain threatens duties on consumer items which had been removed by Gladstone (in the picture on the wall); Chinese indentured labour in South Africa; John Bull contemplates his vote; Joseph Chamberlain and Arthur Balfour (who favoured retaliatory tariffs) wearing top hats